Matsumoto Sunday October 18, 2009

 

Sunday was laundry day for J. So I wandered around downtown Matsumoto before J and I met up at the Starbucks at Matsumoto station. From there we wandered around the town until we got to the Matsumoto Castle.

 

 

 

The castle is something right out of some Samurai movie. I have been to a couple other castles in Japan but most of them have been rebuilt as museums so their insides were rather sterile. The nice thing about the Matsumoto castle is that most of the insides seems pretty original although not furnished it had an authentic feel. They had exhibit showing the guns and the battles but by and large it was unaltered. As an experience the interior was frustrating because the stair were like ladders so the queues backed up so people could climb the slippery ships ladder stairs. They made you take off your shoes so you were walking on slippery cedar flooring

This picture was taken out of one of the windows. The black part is a wooden shutter that would protect from on-coming gun fire. The reflection is in a mote that surrounds the castle on all sides.  

 

 

 

 

Inside the lines got very long but you can see the heavy timbers

 

 

 

 

 

As with all Japanese towns there are these gems of modern architecture. This concrete building seemed to house three stories of shops. Most of it appeared to be a stair and an elevator housed in a beautiful concrete box.

 

 

 

We walked back to the Ryokan by the river as the sunset.